It's only a point

Friday, June 14

“It’s only a point.”

If you’ve spent any time on the internet this week, you’ve likely seen clips of Roger Federer’s stellar graduation speech at Dartmouth University. In it he talked about the idea of perfection being a myth and failure being part of the process.

“In the 1,526 singles matches I played in my career, I won almost 80% of those matches. Now, I have a question for you. What percentage of points do you think I won in those matches? Only 54%. In other words, even top ranked tennis players win barely more than half of the points they play.

When you lose every second point on average, you learn not to dwell on every shot. You teach yourself to think, ‘Okay, I double faulted. It’s only a point.’”

Arguably the greatest tennis player of all time, an elite competitor, a tireless worker who was obsessed with getting better. Yet still had the perspective on failure of, “It’s only a point.”

​It’s not that the point didn’t matter. In the middle of the point, he said that the point is the most important thing in the world. But when it’s over, it’s over. You can’t dwell on it, you must give your focus on the next point, which is now the most important point.

In our pursuit of growth, there will be setbacks. You will have moments of failure. You will fall short of the standard at times. Too many of us have a tendency in those moments to beat ourselves up, to dwell on the mistake, to replay it over and over in our mind.

All that keeps us from doing is living the next moment, making the next move, doing the next right thing. Because you can’t focus on your next action if you are still thinking about your last mistake.

It’s only a point. Let it go and keep moving. It’s what the best of the best do.

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Keep chopping wood. 🪵🪓

-Kevin